At 1:55 AM -0400 10/8/00, Declan McCullagh wrote:
I do hope Robert thinks through this. Or maybe this is another example of cypherpunk thinking not meshing well with Canada. Austin of ZKS spoke Wednesday here in DC, and his comments are relayed to me from another speaker who is sympathetic to his position:
Austin H. made an interesting point this morning at the WSJ Tech Summit. He pointed out that for all the grumbling about government rules, no hi-tech CEO would seriously recommend abolishing the SEC.
Perhaps. But some cypherpunks might argue for it, in the stronger case, or in the weaker, simply argue that the SEC will become less and less relevant.
"O'Brien pointed out that for all the grumbling about the rules for writers imposed by the Ministry of Truth, not one of the accredited writers and publishers would seriously recommend abolishing MiniTru." He went on to say, "To do so would be to bring on "literary anarchy," with no control over top-down reputations, no recourse for incorrect thoughts, and the spread of peer-to-peer, aka prole-to-prole, communications." Back to our reality... The SEC has valid _contractual enforcement_ roles. I haven't worked out all the details, but I'm sure a free market rating/credentially agency could handle most of the chores, with various forms of private law (polymorphic law, a la Benson's "The Enterprise of Law, circa 1990-91). Caveat emptor...it's not as though we're not flooded with plenty of information on which to base decisions. Most of what the SEC does is not too terribly unlibertarian, though some of the recent moves to make "financial advisors" more "accountable" is disturbing. Even opinions expressed on bulletin boards and chat rooms and newsgroups may soon come under their control...so much for the First Amendment. "("It's for the investors!") However, I don't get the thrust of Austin's comments. Perhaps he'll read this and add some detail. Certainly the practical effect of a _real_ 2-way anonymous communication system will be to basically _gut_ the core of the SEC. Proles will be able to talk up stocks, spread rumors, all the usual stuff expected in a free society. (The recent case of the LA-based young man who shorted Emulex and then faked a press release has been discussed many times. In a free society, his communications could better be protected against traceability. On the other hand, digital signatures from a company would be expected. Trust the laws of mathematics, not the laws of men.) If Austin is drawing conclusions that we _need_ an SEC, then perhaps the flaws and delays people are reporting for ZKS are indicative of a deeper issue. Maybe ZKS plans to make their system "meet the legitimate needs of law enforcement." The Thought Police will be thrilled. --Tim May -- ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.